1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement in a violin and, more and particularly, to an improvement in a sound post thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, the body of a violin family is designed so that as shown in FIG. 1 which is a sectional view in a direction of a bowstring, in the lower surface of a belly 1 and the inside of the body, a bass bar extends parallel with a bowstring in the vicinity of a lower portion of a left leg of a bridge 5, and a sound post 6 is stood upright with opposite ends thereof placed in contact with the back plate 2 and the belly 1 in the vicinity of a portion at the rear of a right leg of the bridge 5. It has been known that the quality of a stress or rhythm of sound and a tone color is affected by the quality of the mounting of the bass bar and the sound post, and adjustment thereof is carefully carried out.
It has been heretofore considered that a part or role of the sound post 6 is to transmit a vibration of the bowstring or the belly 1 to the back plate 2 so as to induce a sounding of the whole body. The opposite ends of the sound post 6 formed from a small-diameter round pine rod are formed into a plane substantially vertical to the lengthwise direction of the rod and have to be placed in firm contact with both the back plate and the belly.
However, if the role of the sound post 6 is to transmit the vibration of the bowstring to the back plate, the position thereof is desirably located immediately under the bridge. The conventional interpretation of the role of the sound post is very questionable such that the vibration of the back plate does not seem to be so large in view of the fact that the sound post has to be stood upright away from the position of the bridge by about 1/4 inches, and the belly 1 of the body is made of a relatively soft material such as a pine tree whereas the back plate 2 is made of a hard material such as a maple tree.